John Bickersteth

Who is John Bickersteth?

John Monier Bickersteth KCVO was Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1975 to 1987, and Clerk of the Closet from 1979-1989.

Bickersteth descends from a clerical family over several generations; in total six family members have been Church of England Bishops. His father was Canon Edward Monier Bickersteth, and his mother, Inez Katharine Jelf/Bickersteth, was a friend of the actress Sybil Thorndike.

Educated at Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford, he was ordained in 1951 and began his career with a Curacy at St Matthew Moorfield's Bristol. After a spell as Vicar of St Stephen's Church, Chatham he ascended to the Episcopate in 1970 as Suffragan Bishop of Warrington, and after five years was further promoted to Bath. From 1979 he was Clerk of the Closet for a decade.